The Flashback
by erikapepsii
Summary: Harry Potter had always been friends with Ron's cousin, Erika Prewett,the not so skinny super genius. But when abuse nearly takes her away, he finds he can't live without her. What will Hogwarts think if they knew he wanted to be more than friends? Drama.
1. The Wedding

Author's Note: Erika Prewett is a character that I have made up based on my favorite people around me. She is the daughter of Molly Weasley's deceased brother, Fabian, and his newlywed, Eirisina (also made up by me).

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Harry Potter or anything about it's characters. I just love him!

Please get past the first chapter, because the first chapter is just introductory!!!!!

**Harry's with Who??**

**Chapter Uno**

Every girl at some time or another dreams at least a little about one certain day in their lives. Erika Prewett never thought that this certain day would ever come for her- but it did. She stood there for a moment, staring happily at the reflection in the mirror. She had to admit, she had picked the perfect dress. The white sequin gown fit just right over her curvy figure, and her long reddish-brown hair fell right into the perfect places as the rollers she was using magically disappeared when the curls were just right.

It seemed as if nothing could remove the smile that was almost certain to be permanently fixed on her face for the past year and finally the day had some when she would marry one of the two people that she could ever truly call her best friend. This person meant more to her than oxygen, more that anyone else had throughout her entire life. He had done so much for the world that no one would ever thank him enough, but what was more important to her was that he had saved _her _world from disaster, from becoming the most dreary existence that seemed almost inevitable in her future.

Erika didn't know why, but he loved her for her, not what she looked like and not what others had thought about her. She sat sometimes, wondering what he saw in the girl had he chosen her- the not-so-skinny, overly shy Gryffindor that no one had really noticed (or at least she had _thought_ no one had noticed). What ever it was, she knew that she would be eternally grateful to it. She always knew what it was that had made her fall for him- his heart. He appeared to have overwhelming passion and unconditional love spilling out over every pore in his body in spades.

Erika loved everything about Harry: his charming personality, his laugh, and the way he smiled at her and her alone, even his hot-headed temper. Just thinking about him made the already beaming smile on her face inch even higher, yet just thinking about what was about to take place made nervous chills run down her spine. In just a little while from then, she knew that her life would be forever altered. She would be finally complete, be even happier than she already was. She would be Mrs. Erika Leigh Potter.

"Hey, up there!!!" She heard her other best friend and cousin, Ron, yell as he climbed the stairs at his home. He walked through the door without knocking or even looking up for that matter. "Hey, it's almost time to …." He trailed off as his eyes finally focused on the person in front of him. "Wow…..you look….. well there are no words this sight. Not even 'astonishing' is fitting." She smiled at him then turned back to the mirror and sighed. Even though she was so happy and so ready for this day, she was still nervous. Insecure was a better word for it. Insecurity had always set in on days like this one. She didn't know why she had thought this day would be any different. Hope, I guess.

"I know that sigh. The 'something's not right' sigh. Don't you even try the 'Oh, nothing is wrong' bit on me. I know you all too well for that." Ron said, draping his long arms over her shoulders and pulling her closer- like he always had when she was stressed about something. She turned around in his arms to look up at him. 'Why do I have to be so short?' Erika thought. 'Maybe he is just too tall. Harry is quite a bit shorter than Ron and I'm way shorter that Harry. Stop getting distracted. Focus.'

Ron did really know her all too well. He had that knowing look in his eyes, as if she had already told him all her troubles. But comfort was also flowing out of those Weasley eyes. It was moments like this that made her love him so much.

"I'm just a little nervous, I guess." Erika said, looking away from Ron and down at her feet. She knew it was a lie, that's why she tried so hard to not look Ron in the eye. He would know right away if he didn't already. She finally gave in and looked into his eyes and saw exactly what she had expected. Erika pulled him into an even tighter hug. "Oh, who am I kidding? I'm scared, Ron. I love Harry so much. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me, but I just don't want to be……..inadequate." Ron drew back slightly and smirked down at her. He knew exactly how she felt.

"If Harry thought you were 'inadequate' as you call it..," Ron said, making little quotation marks with his fingers. "..He wouldn't have asked you to marry him, now would he? He's a pretty good judge of character, you know. Besides, if that's really what he thinks- which it isn't, mind you- he would be lying through his teeth. If it makes you feel any better, I felt the same way the day I married Hermione. My stomach was twisted into knots. Now look at us, we've done pretty good so far. And I know you and Harry will too. You two were made for each other. I can see it when you look at each other, and I'm not the only one that had noticed it. Now, stop thinking about it, you really do think _way_ too much."

"What do you expect from the 'super genius extraordinaire'? not to think at all? That is literally impossible, you know. It's been proven." Erika said, laughing, then mentally scolding herself about allowing herself to think about her past. The past was the past, and this was the present.

"No, just try not to think as much." Ron said.

"Easier said than done. But back to Harry. I know why I love him, but I don't know why he chose me. He's accomplished way more in one day that I have in my entire life. He's saved the world, for Pete's sake! And all I have to is a lot of extra space in my brain for an unGodly amount of facts, which is really nothing that special. But somehow, he amazes me on how he knows things about how I act that I don't even realize. It's like he knows me better than I know myself. But when he isn't around, thoughts about how I'm going to fail just consume me." Sometimes, she really did wish that those doctors and healers hadn't told her that they had medically proven that she was a literal genius. In fact, she was a super genius, one of the smartest people in both worlds, but she really didn't want to be labeled that. She really was grateful for her gift of knowledge, but sometimes it sure was a burden. Lots of people from both muggle and magical newspapers had made a huge deal about it while she was in her 4th year at Hogwarts and that's when being a genius began to bother her. She really hated all the pointing and whispering that went on for a while. It made her feel more like a freak than a 'marvel' as they had called her.

"Hey, don't ever say that you're not special. You are way more than a human fact machine." Ron said, laughing.

"You really know how to kill a case of nerves, don't you?" Erika said sarcastically, looking away from Ron and over to the window.

"You do realize that you are the only person that can make him complete, right?" Ron said, all seriousness returning in his tone.

"Oh yeah? And how will I manage that? Come up with some 'super genius' spell to keep him happy all the time?" Erika said, throwing her hands up in the air and laughing nervously. She really hated the feeling of not knowing what to do.

"If I know anything about Harry, he keeps his heart heavily guarded because he's had to. People try to mess with him all the time, try to sucker him into relationships just because what his name is, not _who_ he really is. Only a person he trusts, I mean really trusts, would he even think about giving it to. Not only did he let you steal his heart, he gave it to you willingly. I never thought I'd actually see him do it, but he actually gave his heart away. He's such a closed up person that no one ever saw it coming. But, it has been so good for you and Harry. You both have been through so much, and you both are actually smiling almost all the time. It's amazing. But, back to the point, He didn't just give his heart away to just anyone, he gave it to you, because he loves you with everything he has. You are adequate enough because you have his heart, plus everything else you possess. You are lots more special than you claim. You saved Harry's world from crumbling to the ground." Ron said pulling her into a hug. How this sudden burst of wise words got to Ron, Erika couldn't quite figure out, but they sure did help…..a lot.

"Thanks Ron. You are just full of wise words today, aren't you?" Erika said, stepping back from Ron, and giving herself one last look in the mirror.

"Oh come on, you look brilliant. Don't want to keep him waiting, do you?" Ron said, grabbing her hand and dragging her down the stairs.

Forty-five minutes later…

"Do you, Harry James Potter, take Erika to be you lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." Harry replied, staring into the blue eyes that got him into the wonderful mess.

"And do you, Erika Leigh Prewett, take Harry to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." All nervous feelings had left right at that moment. This was right.

"Then I now pronounce you…."

_**Eight Years Earlier…**_

"What do you mean, break up? Why? I thought things were fine between us. I know we've had our fights, but I didn't think it was that bad. I mean, I thought you loved me. That's what you told me." Erika Prewett said, trying desperately to figure out what was happening. She couldn't really believe that after two years, Michael was breaking up with her. She knew that it was going to happen sooner or later but she didn't expect it so soon. Their relationship had been a little rocky for a while, but she had thought that their problems were beginning to dissolve. He was totally unbelievable.

"Love you? ……Michael Corner and the fat girl... in love? No, that's never going to happen. I can't be in this relationship anymore. Really, the only reason I kept you around is because I was failing most of my classes, and you being the smartest person alive, well…. It was convenient. So let's just put this behind us and be done with it, ok?" Michael said, giving a little scoff, and he turned away.

Erika stood there for a second, letting the words that the idiot just said sink in. At first she felt like bursting into tears, but a new wave of burning rage welled up inside of her. He wasn't going to get away with this.

"So was that your plan? Pretend to like a girl, lead her on, use her like piece of garbage, then just kick her to the curb? I've wasted two years of my life on you!! You filthy slime ball!! I'm going to make sure you don't have another girlfriend for the rest of you Hogwarts life, do you hear me, Michael Corner?" Erika said. Michael turned around and smirked. He just didn't know what he was in for did he?

"Oh yeah? And how are you going to do that?" Michael said, turning around and folding his arms across his chest.

"Oh, I'm just tell a few people about you little anger management problem. I mean, what girl wants to go out with an abusive prick like you? and if they don't believe me, I've still got some of those bruises you've given me as proof enough." Erika said, holding out a black and blue wrist. Erika turned on her heels to start her little plan of revenge.

Michael had other plans. He ran up behind her and caught her bruised wrist and quickly turned her around to face him. He got right up into her face and whispered angrily, "You know what you'll get if you do that, don't you?"

"Nothing that I can't handle, now get your hands off of me." Erika said trying to wriggle her hands out of the death grip that Michael had on her.

"Sorry, but I can't do that, I mean, how can I keep my hands off someone I love, right?" Michael said. Erika knew what was coming; his evil tone said it all. She took off in the other direction just as she felt his grip loosen a little. She also knew she couldn't out-run him, so she turned as many corners as she could to try to loose him, but it didn't work. As soon as she ran into a deserted corridor, he ran up behind her, grabbed her shoulders and shoved her into the marble wall. Erika felt something crack and quickly lost her breath. She gasped loudly, and awkwardly got back up on her feet. He came toward her again, and Erika used the right hook that her cousin Ron had taught her over the summer on the bridge of Michael's nose. Satisfaction filled her being as she felt his nose break beneath her fist, but that feeling was soon replaced with overwhelming pain as Michael's hand met her left cheek. He slapped her with such rage induced force that her head looked as if it had ricocheted off the wall. She slid down the cold wall and faded into unconsciousness just as a really tall redhead rounded the corner.

_**5 minutes earlier…**_

Ron Weasley walked out of the Great Hall with a huge smile on his face. He had finally succeeded on landing a date with Hermione to Hogsmeade next Saturday. He hadn't stumbled over his words like he usually did; in fact, he had never felt more comfortable around her in his life. He was so happy that he felt like skipping (but he didn't because that wouldn't be cool). Just as he was about to turn the corner towards the Gryffindor common room, someone ran into his shoulder. Whoever they guy was just kept on running. Ron just shrugged it off until her heard a big slam noise then a loud gasp. That was definitely a girl's voice. That jerk hitting a girl? Stuff like that didn't just blow over with Ron. He ran after the guy, and found him just in time to see Erika, his cousin, slump onto the floor. For a second he thought he was just seeing things. He rubbed his eyes, then opened them to the same harsh reality. Ron rushed over to Erika's limp form. He looked her over, looking for visible injuries. She almost looked dead, only moving when she breathed. The enormous slug had hit her so hard that he knocked her out. He could see little finger-sized bruises forming on her wrists from him slinging her into the wall. This was totally bizarre. What kind of psycho could do this??

"WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU, YOU BLOODY IDIOT?!? SHE COULD HAVE DIED!!!" Ron yelled, and slammed Michael against the wall by his shoulders.

"She punched me, man!!! Nobody punches me, Nobody!" Michael sneered back, as if he had a good reason for rendering a girl unconscious.

"And you actually think that gives you the go ahead to knock a girl out that hardly had a chance against you? NO, that just makes you a woman beater, you ignorant arsehole." Ron growled as he pushed Michael even herder into the wall. He finally released him when he heard a small groan from behind him. He released Michael and quickly turned back to Erika. Her eyes slowly blinked open. Ron took her hand in his, she had told him that had always made her feel safe. She smiled as best as she could, but she looked like she was about to fade back.

"Ron, am I gonna be ok?" she said, barely audible beneath the raspy gasp that was her voice.

"You're going to be fine, there's nothing to worry about. I'm going to take care of everything." Ron said as Erika smiled again and fell back into her deep sleep. He squeezed her hand tighter, released it, then immediately took off for the hospital wing. He would have carried her, but he knew that she had to have internal injuries. He didn't want to make anything worse. As much as he didn't want to, he left Erika with the git.

"You stay with her until I get back. Make sure she doesn't quit breathing, but you keep you filthy woman-beating hands off her. You've done enough damage." Ron shouted over his shoulder. He rounded the corner, completely lost in his thoughts. He looked back for a second and totally pummeled just the right person.

"Ron, watch where you're going!!!" Ginny shouted.

"Ginny! Thank God! I need you to go down there and stay with Erika. She's pretty messed up." Ron said as he started running again.

"Why? What happened?" Ginny asked, already having a pretty good inkling of what happened.

"You'll see." Ron called out as he ran.

Ginny did see, and she was right. That abusive prat had really done it this time. Ginny could see a knot beginning to swell on the side of Erika's head and the little bruises on her wrists. A large handprint adorned Erika's face that left bright red marks on her porcelain skin. The scene was truly grizzly, which drove Ginny off the edge.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! YOU MIGHT HAVE ACTUALLY KILLED HER THIS TIME! I CANT BELIEVE SHE TOOK YOU BACK AFTER THE FIRST TIME YOU HIT HER!" Ginny bellowed at Michael, glaring at him with the dirtiest look she could muster. He opened his mouth to speak, but she raised her hand in front of his face. She didn't want to hear his pathetic excuse. There was no way that he would get away with this again. She would make sure that Erika would never take him back like she usually did, and make sure he never did this to any girl at Hogwarts. Time for some reputation smearing…………


	2. The Hatred of a Git

Thanks for the review….. yeah, chapter one is kind of a dud, but hopefully it gets better. Erika Prewett is a character I have made up based on the personalities of my favorite people. For the purpose of my story, she is the daughter of Molly's brother, Fabian, and his new wife, Eirisina (also made up). Yes, Molly's brothers did die during the first war, but that comes into play later on. Very sorry for the misclarification!!

_**10:30 p.m. One Week After the Attack…**_

Erika lay silent and totally still in the infirmary. Ron refused to sleep in the common room. What if she woke up during the night and no one was there to help her? Her injuries were worse than he had thought. She had broken 2 ribs, one of which punctured her right lung. Michael cracked her skull with that last hit which made her brain swell, and she had a lot of internal bleeding. Of course, Madame Pomfrey fixed everything, but she would have to stay in the hospital wing for a long time. She was in a coma state, which made everybody very nervous. The Weasleys, Harry and Hermione didn't know how they would take it she didn't wake up. Ron's head swirled with all the details, and he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, nightmares of woman beaters setting in.

_**2:00 a.m. The Next Morning…**_

Erika's eyes fluttered open. She didn't know where she was at first, but as her poor vision cleared to its normal badness, she recognized the blurry white curtains that belonged to the Hospital Wing. 'He must have really done it this time.' She thought. She had been to infirmary because of him a few times, but she never had to stay over night before. She went to reach for her glasses, but she suddenly realized that she couldn't move her arm. She couldn't move anything for that matter. 'He's paralyzed me? Oh my gosh!!' she thought. Panic ran like a marathon through her mind, and she frantically looked around the room as much as she could. She saw a little glint of red hair in the corner of her eye, and immediately began going through the names that matched it.

"Ginny! Fred, George! Ron! Whoever it is, please wake up!!" she said as loud as she could, which wasn't very loud. Thank goodness that someone was there, otherwise she would have had to lay there until morning until someone would know she as awake. Whoever was sitting in the chair got up and went to her side.

"Erika, shhh, it's alright. I'm here. Thank God you're awake." The voice said, and instantly knew it was Ron.

"What happened to me?" Erika asked.

"You mean you don't remember?" Ron questioned.

"The last thing I remember running away from Mich…… from someone." Erika said, looking away from Ron. He always knew when she was trying to hide something.

"Don't you dare try to shield that evil prat!!! We all know what he's done to you. He had to take veritasserum and recount every time he ever laid a hand on you. About half way through it, I had to just get up and leave. I couldn't take it. He has treated you so awful. He nearly killed you this time, you know. You've been in this bed for a week without any signs of recovery." Ron said, pacing back and forth beside her bed, talking with his hands wildly.

"What did he do this time? I seriously can't remember." Erika sighed, staring up at the ceiling, letting all this information sink in.

"Well, he said you threatened to tell the school about his anger problems. He threatened to hurt you if you did, you ran for it but he caught up with you, he slung you into the wall, you stood back up and broke his nose, he slapped you and you hit the wall again. I saw that part. He hit you so hard that your head sort of bounced off the wall before you blacked out. That's all true because he was still under the veritasserum." Ron said, throwing himself back into his chair and sighing. Everything was silent for a long time. Erika didn't know what to say. She never thought Michael would ever take it this far, but it really didn't surprise her. She was about to say something, but Ron spoke up first.

"I don't know how you put up with all that for two years. I mean, you knew what he was doing was wrong, didn't you?" Ron said, throwing his hand in the air. This didn't make any sense to him. How could someone so smart be so stupid?

"Of course I did, Ron! I just didn't want…. to be alone." Erika replied. "I mean, really… who wants to be with me…. The fat girl? Nobody, that's who. I just wanted to feel wanted. Is that such a crime? Besides, I'm going to pay for my stupidity. I'm probably paralyzed, so quit grilling me." Erika said, knowing that it still wouldn't be the end of it.

"No, I wont! You don't know how bad it hurt to see one of you best friends in the state you're in. All because some guy couldn't control his anger. We didn't know if you were going to make it. We've all been out of our minds with worry. I've sat here every night since it happened, making sure someone was here when you woke up. It's been a nightmare. And you're not paralyzed. It's a potion to keep you still because you needed to be totally still for some of your injuries to heal. You had a lot of internal bleeding." Ron said, putting his head in his hands, then leaning back in his chair to stare at the ceiling.

"Ron, I'm really sorry, I don't know what to say. Just don't be mad at me. I really…" Erika said, but was interrupted.

"I'm not mad, just don't let someone do this to you again. And don't be sorry, you didn't ask for this to happen, but you could have prevented it. You didn't have to stay with him. I never want to see you like this ever again because of some heartless prat who doesn't know when to stop. And you will not end up alone. Someone is out there for you; you just haven't found him yet." Ron said, pulling his chair closer to the bed so he could prop his feet up on the edge of the bed. Silence set in again. Erika knew he was right, and she really didn't feel like arguing anymore. She decided to just let it go for now. And Ron looked dreadfully tired. He wasn't going to sleep in that chair any longer if she could help it.

"Thank you for staying with me. Tell all the others that I thank them too. And I promise I will never let anyone do anything like this to me ever again. Now, since I'm going to be fine, you go on up to the common room and get a good night's sleep. I'll still be here in the morning." Erika said.

"Are you sure? I'll stay as long as you want me to." Ron said, but she knew that he wanted to go up to his dormitory.

"Yes, I'm sure. No go on." Erika said.

"Ok, but I'll be back in the morning to check on you."

"Ok."

Ron smiled at her and waved his hand to her. She smiled back and listened to his footsteps until she couldn't hear them anymore.

Harry heard the dormitory door creak open. He grasped his wand, just in case. He peered out from behind the curtains on his four poster and breathed a sigh or relief. Ron had come back form the hospital, which meant something good had happened! He wouldn't have left unless she _told_ him to leave.

"What are you doing back? Did she wake up?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. We had a little talk about her little boyfriend and how bad she scared us. She's going to be fine. She said to tell you thank you for visiting her. I'm just glad she woke up." Ron said as he climbed into bed.

"Yeah, me too." Harry said, settling back down in his bed and smiling. He had been worried about Erika, but he was worried about Ron, too. Ron had seen the jerk shove her into the wall, and it had to be heartbreaking. He probably would have went ballistic on the guy. Ron had barely eaten anything (which meant something was really wrong) and any free moment was spent in the hospital wing. Harry went with him most of the time. Erika had looked really beaten up, bandages all over her head and arms, but she was still just as pretty as she always did. He didn't know how she managed to look as good as she did.

Harry had offered to stay with Erika during the night, but Ron wouldn't have it, and there was only one person allowed in her room at night. He would make sure he beat Ron to her room in the morning. He had some things to tell her about her stupid boyfriend as well. He didn't believe his ears when Ginny had told him what had been going on for nearly two years. He was white-hot with anger, he hated seeing his friends in pain, because of some other stupid person. Setting the alarm on his watch a little earlier that he had planned for, he drifted back to sleep, back into one of his nightmares.

_**4:00 a.m., a few hours later**_

Erika's eyes blinked halfway open as she felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder. She felt like she hadn't slept in years, even though she had been in that bed for over a week, sleeping. She shifted slowly onto her side and squinted in the direction of the clock on her beside table. Her eyes widened as she read the time. She didn't even take the time to see who her disturber was.

"Don't you realize that it is 4:00 in the morning, whoever you are? Well since you are here, be a doll and find my glasses so I can figure out who you are, then I'll kindly know who it is that I'm blessing out for waking me up." Erika said, wincing at sharp pains running through her whole body as she sat up. She really hated being woken up when she was sleeping so comfortably. Whoever the intruder was better have a good reason for waking her up.

"Calm down, it's Harry. Gosh, you're most pleasant in the morning." Harry said sarcastically as he retrieved the lime green and pink spectacles from the pile of neatly folded clothes lying on one of the chairs that surrounded her bed. He handed the glasses to Erika, and she quickly put them on. She recognized the set of clothes as the last outfit she remembered putting on. Someone must have cleaned them for her, most likely Hermione.

"What brings you down here so early? Did you _miss_ me?" Erika said, dragging out the word 'miss' and giggling like a little girl that had found hidden candy.

"I'm glad to see you find being dead to the world for over a week humorous. Of course I missed you. I actually had to fall back on asking Hermione for help on my homework like I did during first year. You pretty much have to beg her for help." Harry said dismally as he flopped into one of the chairs. He looked up at her and smirked, waiting to see what she was going to say.

"And I'm glad to find out that all I am to you is a human study guide." Erika said with fake enthusiasm.

"Chill out, I'm just kidding. So, how have you been for the last two hours since you woke up from your week long absence?" Harry asked.

"How did you know I woke up two hours ago?" Erika asked, forgetting his question.

"Well, the deal is that I've actually been in here the whole time under the invisibility cloak. I've been making sure that the idiot woman beater doesn't come in here while Ron dozed off." Harry said jokingly, but then he saw the look of scorn on her face. He straightened up immediately and said, "Ron told me you woke up."

"Lovely. He probably told you that we had a little fight, too, didn't he? He can't keep his mouth shut for nothing." Erika said.

"Actually he didn't say anything about that, he just said that you two talked about how bad you scared us." Harry replied.

"Oh, well I guess I'm the one with the big mouth. Now, throw me that pile of clothes. I can't take this hospital any longer." Erika said, as she pulled herself out of the bed and stood waiting for her clothes.

"Hey, where are you sprinting off to?" Harry asked as he tossed Erika her clothes, groaning as he pulled himself up out of the chair.

"Since you woke me up and there is no hope of me going back to sleep, I've done a little thinking. I spend way too much time in this dreadful hospital. I can finish getting better somewhere else. I hate this place with a flipping passion, and I'm leaving it and not coming back unless I'm dying." Erika said, grabbing her clothes and stepping into the empty set of curtains next to her little cubicle.

"Wow, you really do think fast. But you know, dying is what you might very well be. We don't know if you've healed up enough to leave yet, so get back in here, or…. I'm sicking Ron on you."

"Go ahead, you know he can't stop me. He hates it when I pitch a bch fit. And don't you go ordering me around, Harry Potter," Erika said as she finished changing and pulled whatever hair that wasn't under a bandage back into a messy ponytail. She wrenched back the curtains as Harry's silhouette came back into focus. "I am capable of making my own decisions."

"Apparently not, because if you were, you wouldn't be in this in this dreadful hospital so much with big hand sized bruises on you." Harry said, casually returning to his seat.

"On, you're not going to go on about Michael too, are you? Of all people I thought you wouldn't say anything. I'm going to hear enough from Ron, Ginny, Fred and George, Hermione, well pretty much everybody. I'm never going to live this one down. I might as well just…'

"…No, I wasn't going to say anything but that Michael -a.k.a. Enemy numero uno- got expelled right after they gave him some truth serum and spilled his foul, loathsome guts, so you don't have to worry about him giving you any more concussions any time soon. Madame Pomfry said that you've been in here more times than me! And half of the time with a concussion. I personally hate the feeling of my head feeling like it's about to explode, but whatever floats your boat." Harry said. He picked up a magazine off the big stack that Ron had brought down to keep himself occupied when he sat there for hours. Erika glanced back at him and laughed a little.

"Your insufferable, and, for your information, it was a contusion this time, lots worse than a concussion, and I'm still here so I'll be fine. But really, I've got to get out of here or I'll go ballistic, and you know how bad my ballistic-ness is." Erika said, gathering the rest of her stuff and putting them into her newly discovered school bag. She tried to pick of the bag, but it was so heavy, and she was too weak to lift the load.

"Fine, but don't come crying to me when your unhealed insides spontaneously combust from lack of proper rest. And I am not going to clean that mess up when u blow up." Harry said as he flipped lazily through the magazine.

"Oh, hush it. I'm just going back to the common room, and I'll stay put there if that will make you happy." Erika said and she started off for the common room, her school bag sliding across the floor as she dragged it behind her.

"Yep, happy now. I don't want you down here anymore either, I just want you to get better. Oh, quit dragging that tank of a book bag and hand it here." Harry said as he reached for the bag.

"No, I've got it.."

"…It's too heavy for you to…"

"…I'm fine, just leave me…"

"…HAND IT OVER…"

"…Fine!! Here!" Erika whispered scathingly.

"Thank you. I've always wanted to carry this thing, see what it felt like to be smart. Feels heavy. Glad that I'm not that smart." Harry said, smirking and throwing the bag over his shoulder.

"That's the price of being a slave to knowledge. Your ball and chain is that book bag and your punishment for being a genius is that you can never soak up enough information and facts. You are a sponge that never gets fully saturated. Dismal, I know." Erika said.

"No it's not. If I was a little smarter, I might have thought of a spectacular plan to get rid of Voldemort, but I really have not idea what to do. But, I'll probably just stumble into whatever happens. Sure fire plan." Harry said, sighing and grimacing. He tried not to think about his inevitable, dreary future, but most of the time, it was impossible.

"You'll come up with something. You always do, even if it is at the last second." Erika said, smiling at him, hoping she could cheer him up. He smiled back. They kept talking the rest of the way up and they had just passed the corridor that led to the Headmaster's office a few moments earlier when they heard something they really didn't want to hear.

"PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!" screamed a voice that Erika knew all too well. She pulled Harry into a deserted corridor and cautiously peered around the corner. She saw a livid Madame Pomfry heading up the headmaster's staircase. Erika tiptoed closer to the gargoyle that guarded the spiral stairs and she could clearly hear Madame Pomfry's ranting. Harry was right behind her.

"What is it, Poppy? What happened?" said the cheerful voice of Professor Dumbledore.

"Miss Prewett is not in her bed in the infirmary. She has never sneaked out of the hospital before. Now, I care about that child like she is my own. If something's happened to her I don't know what I'll do. She didn't leave a note or anything. That is so unlike her." Madame Pomfry said, her voice quivering as if she was about to burst into tears.

"Now, Poppy. She's around here somewhere. She probably just got tired of being in the infirmary all by herself. Mr. Corner is far away at the Wizard Delinquent Alternative School. I would think that she's in the Gryffindor common room right now." Dumbledore said in a soothing voice.

"That dreadful boy might have owled her and talked her into meeting him somewhere. I knew something was wrong when she came in the first time with bruises all over her arms. I knew quidditch wasn't the cause for all those bruises, even if Mr. Potter was her drill sergeant. She's probably gone back to that Corner boy now. She always does." Madame Pomfry said. Erika made to say some right nasty comments, but Harry held her back.

"If you go up there now, you're going to be right back in the hospital wing….." Harry said, as he heard footsteps coming back down from the staircase.

"I'm sure she is safe in her dormitory. Mr. Weasley was probably there when she woke up, so I'm certain that he had something to say about her boyfriend." Dumbledore said.

"Well, I'm going up there to check on her. And I'll want to be notified the second she wakes up. She's not going to like what I have to say," came Madame Pomfry's voice echoing down the stairs.

"Come on before she sees us." Erika said, and started to run despite the agonizing pain that was pulsing through her whole being.

"For someone who just woke up from a coma, you run really fast." Harry said, trying to keep up with her and drag her book bag at the same time.

"I've had enough practice running from Michael, since I'm apparently not capable of leaving him." Erika said. She reached the portrait of the Fat lady and muttered the password, but the door didn't open. She looked at Harry with an expression he had never seen before- confusion.

"That's not the password anymore. They changed it when you got hurt because if Michael got in somehow and you told him the password, he'd be able to get to you. It's 'get better Erika'. You mean more to people than you think, so don't ever get involved with a guy like that again." Harry said as let Erika in the common room first, then ran in himself. He threw her school bag onto the nearest common room couch so that Madame Pomfry would know that she was here.

"Now go before she gets in here." Harry said, as he ran up the boy's dormitory staircase.

"Harry?" Erika's said as she paused at the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah?" Harry answered, poking his head around the corner.

"Thanks for nearly getting caught with me." Erika said, smiling.

"Anytime." Harry said smirking back, and they both turned up opposite staircases and climbed into their beds.


	3. Black Boxes and Silver Ribbon

Erika had barely pulled the covers up to her face when Madame Pomfry slipped into the room. She walked quietly and quickly over to what she thought was Erika's sleeping form. She checked her pulse and magically removed the bandage around her head and looked over the wound that, at a glance, appeared to look a big crater. She wrapped it back up the muggle way, making sure the wrap wasn't too tight. She sighed at the sleeping girl as disappointing thoughts ran through her mind. _I don't see how she made it through this torture, _she thought as the checked on the wrap on her abdomen. She magically changed it, because the tighter it was the better. When she had finished her examination, she sighed again and smiled down at the girl that she had grown to love as her own. She had nearly pulled the door shut when she heard a whisper from inside.

"I'm sorry." Erika said. She sat up in the bed and shifted as if she was about to get out of the bed.

"No, you stay in that bed. You don't need to be overexerting yourself." Madame Pomfry said. She made her way back to Erika's side and conjured up a chair.

"I'm sorry that I scared you. You're right, I should have left a note. I just couldn't stand being behind those curtains anymore." Erika said, playing with a flaw in the scarlet and gold comforter.

"How did you know that you scared me?" Madame Pomfry asked.

"I overheard your conversation with Professor Dumbledore earlier. I had just pulled the covers up when you came in." Erika replied.

"So, you heard everything I said?"

"Yes, but you don't have to worry about me trying to find Michael anymore. I think I've learned my lesson this time." Erika said.

"You better have. Have you seen what he did to your head, child? This is not just any domestic dispute, this is absolutely the worst damage I've seen a boy inflict on a girl in all my years at Hogwarts. That ignorant fool has serious anger problems, and I really just can't see why you let him do this to you. You deserve someone who will love you not for what you know, but for the beauty I see every time I look at you. Someone who will smile every time you walk into the room, just because he sensed your presence. That's what love is. And you have plenty of time for a relationship later. You just need to enjoy being a teenager. Believe me, it doesn't last forever. But I'll be quiet now. You need to rest. You will be missing your classes for the rest of the week, which shouldn't be any problem for you. You are allowed out of bed, but you cannot, I repeat cannot overdo anything. You will walk wherever you go, absolutely no running, and you will report to me every five hours, unless it's the middle of the night. Oh, and every night before you go to bed, those wraps need to be changed. You'll have to wear them for at least another two weeks. I don't want that head wound getting infected. Now you go to sleep. Sweet dreams, dear." Madame Pomfry said. She wasn't nearly as stern as she had meant to be She leant over and kissed Erika's bandaged forehead and made sure Erika was comfortable before leaving the dormitory.

Note: Eirisina is pronounced air-is-ena

The sun peered through a tiny opening in the scarlet curtains in the 5th year girls dormitory. The gleam of light soon reached the face of a bruised, but content girl who was smiling in her sleep. The turned over in her sheets as to get away from the sun, and opened her eyes. Her beside clock read 9:30 a.m. She sighed and made to get out of bead, but an old keepsake caught her attention. She picked up an old picture frame that her Aunt Molly had given her. There stood her father and mother, Fabian and Eirisina, in the old faded photograph, holding a little blue-eyed baby in their arms. They were dancing slowly to an un-hearable song, their arms wrapped around each other, the baby held closely in between them. Erika's finger ran across the picture and quickly sat it back down. She tried not to think about the parents she never knew, who apparently loved her, but never got the chance to get to know her. They were killed 3 days after the photograph was taken, one of the last moments she ever spent with her parents. Erika tried to push these depressing thoughts aside as she got ready to walk around the castle.

She stepped out of the shower and put on a fitted pink top and a black pair of Bermuda shorts. She found her pink Vans with the black musical notes, her favorite Muggle shoes, and slipped them on. She scrunched her hair that wasn't trapped under the bandage and started to decorate the bandage with conjured rhinestones. After she was finished, the once ordinary white piece of fabric now looked like a stylish hair piece. She had a knack for taking something ordinary and turning it into a work of art. Her Aunt Molly had said that Eirisina was like that, and Fabian had always stayed in style. That's why she took it upon herself that she never looked like a slob. Even if she was sporting the grunge look, it never looked sloppy. It was the only way that she felt that she could make sure she would never forget them- style and music. Molly had also told her that her parents loved music. Her mother was a professional pianist and singer and her father met her at one of her concerts. Molly said that Fabian has told her just a few minutes before he married Eirisina that he hadn't even meant to walk into the coffee shop where she was playing. He said that he thought he saw an angel with a glowing golden aura around her through the window as he walked by, and when he walked in, he heard her voice and was completely entranced.

Erika wanted so much to make her parents proud. She made sure she did her best and more than her best at everything that she did. She taught herself how to play the piano, guitar, and the violin. She was the smartest person in her year, and had broken many school records with her exam scores. That's how the Ministry of Magic had found out about her genius-hood and the news leaked into the press. Now everyone in the wizarding community at least knew her name. Even a percentage of the Muggle community knew about her over active brain waves. Because of this, she avoided most of the mail that she got because it was mostly muggle college scholarship offers and more offers to take on summer internships at the Ministry. She hated being hounded by people. She was only fifteen, for crying out loud! She wasn't ready to sell her self to a full time job just yet. That's why, most of the time, she enjoyed being at school. She could have tested out of Hogwarts this year and gotten an apprenticeship with one of the teachers, but she chose to stay with her friends and be a kid as long as she could. She knew the second she walked out of Hogwarts after graduation that her semi-peaceful life that she knew now would probably vanish into a sea of job offers.

After she had applied her lime green and pink eye shadow and put the finishing touches on her mascara, Erika walked down to the hospital wing to check in with Madame Pomfry. She was quickly cleared to leave and was sent to the almost-deserted Great Hall where a few elves were arranging something on the Gryffindor table. She made to walk over to them, but she was promptly told to turn around because they weren't finished with the surprise. A blindfold magically tied itself over her eyes and she was lead over to the bench. She sat there for maybe a minute longer and when the blindfold was removed, she nearly drowned in her own tears.

There was a single little cupcake with a small candle in the middle of a mass of black boxes and cards and silver ribbons and two pink roses on each side of the cake. Everyone knew that her favorite color combination was pink, black and silver, most everything she owned was one of those colors. She was almost speechless, only saying thank you to the elves who smiled, bowed and disapperated with a snap. She read all the cards first, admiring all the notes that were written in from her friends telling her to get well or telling her not to scare them like that ever again. Erika especially liked the card from one of her best friends, Neville, which read:

_Erika,_

_Thank God you woke up! I have been out of my mind without you here! Don't ever scare me like that again, because if you do, I will probably never forgive you. Well, maybe I would, but anyway…. When I heard about what had happened to you, you want to know what the first things I thought about was? It was the first time you winked at me before your first quidditch match. I didn't know why you did it, but somehow it was the right thing to do. Every time I think about that, I laugh. I don't know why I'm telling you that, but maybe it will cheer you up. I drew something for you. I did this a little while after I visited you the first night you were in the hospital. Turn the note over._

_Neville_

It was a hand-drawn moving picture of her at a quidditch pitch. The sketch of her winked up at the on looker, then zoomed off around the pitch. The scene depicted what happened between them before each Gryffindor quidditch match ever since Erika made the team as a chaser during her second year. Erika didn't have many friends then, and Neville was one of the only friends she had. When all the players flew out onto the field before her first match, Erika flew straight to where Neville was because she was so nervous. She smiled at him and he smiled back. And for some odd reason, she winked at him then the whistle blew. She played one of her best matches that day. Ever since, Erika always flew close to where Neville was sitting and winked at him just before the starting whistle blew. It was sort of a good luck ritual. She never knew Neville was this good of an artist. She would have to frame this when she got to her dormitory.

Then, she opened all the boxes adorned with the silver ribbons. The first was Hermione's gift. It was a framed picture of the two of them laughing at something. She remembered it from their last Hogsmeade trip, the one where Ron had slipped on a puddle of water in The Three Broomsticks. She remembered Hermione and herself laughing so much that they nearly toppled off the stools they were sitting on. Harry must have snapped this picture when they weren't looking. He had just gotten a new camera and was momentarily obsessed with photography. Erika propped the picture up and went for the rest of the boxes.

Ron and Ginny had given her a silver charm bracelet that had two charms on it- each one a half of a broken heart. Erika ran her fingers across the two halves and felt little indentions in the silver. She turned the broken heart halves over and she saw pretty cursive engraving that was so small that she had to squint to read it. At first, she read the halves separately, and then realized you had to put them together. She smiled at the words, too insecure to believe them, but they were still beautiful.

"_Broken, but will Beautifully Mend__."_

She clasped the bracelet on her wrist which still held the broken bruises that the charm spoke of and went for the next box. She opened it, and something green and blue loudly exploded from it. Erika fell backward off her seat and onto the floor, loosing her breath for a second, and looked up at the swirling lights forming some image above her head. The green and blue lights were drawing a picture, which soon became a cartoon version of two familiar faces. When the lights stopped moving, a loud voice erupted from the face on the left.

"You know how much trouble you are in, don't you?" said an agitated voice.

"Oh, George, give her a bit of a break, she did just wake up from a coma, you know." said the face on the right.

"No, she doesn't get a break. Erika, the next time I see you- well I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but believe me, you're not going to like it. What have me and Fred always told you? You are not to let any boy even think about touching you until you are at least 25. And what do you go off and do? Get yourself beat up by a useless little prick who can't keep he filthy claws to himself. I just can't believe it! Come on, Fred, back me up here….."

"George, if you say anything else, you won't have anything else left to say when you do see her. But, really, Erika. I don't sound angry right now, but that's because I'm testing a new –er- elation potion for the shop, but don't think you won't hear anything from me. You just wait 'till mum gets a hold of you. I'm getting front row seats to that one," Fred's voice said.

"I guess Fred's right. I'm going to save the rest of this talk for later. Just know that you don't have to go through anything like that again because we will personally cream that creep if we see him. We all love you and don't want to see you like we saw you when we visited you the other day. Believe me, I barely recognized you. Oh, me and Fred got you something, it's in the box. Might go with something you might have already opened," George's drawing said, sounding a little calmer.

"Yeah, we hope you like it. We worked really hard on it, so if you don't like it, send it back because I do. Tell everyone we said hello. Peace and love to you," said Fred's drawing sarcastically, and the drawing disappeared, leaving a few scattered sparks fluttering in the air.

Sighing as she picked herself off the floor, Erika slowly picked up the slightly charred box. There was a smaller box inside that opened by itself when she touched it. Another shiny charm gleamed in the light of the Great Hall. It was pink on one side with her initials engraved in similar cursive as the one Ron and Ginny had given her. She was about to put in on her bracelet when she noticed something moving on the other side. She turned it over and saw something like a slideshow flickering. She realized that it was sort of like a photo album flipping through the pages. Every three seconds another photo would appear, one of a face that was special to her. Aunt Molly, Uncle Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Harry, and even Neville had a little picture appear on the charm. She noticed that the twins left out someone- Percy. Even though he wasn't on the top of her most favorite people list, she still loved him. Erika looked in the box for anything else that might be in there and saw a small piece of paper. It read:

_If you want to add more people on it, all you have to do is sit the charm on the face of the person in the picture you want to add and say "Addus Picto"._

_Love,_

_Fred and George_

_They must have destroyed all the pictures they had of Percy when he left, _Erika thought and fastened the charm onto her new bracelet. Only one box was left. She untied the unique silver ribbon on the small box and slowly opened it with her eyes shut, scared of what might explode from it. When nothing happened, she opened her eyes to find another piece of folded paper with her name written on it in familiar handwriting. She unfolded it and it said:

_I didn't know what to get you, so I gave you something I already had. I am really fond of it, but I have nothing to wear it with and it really doesn't match my eyes, so, I thought I'd give it to you. It matches your eyes much better, I think. Here are the rules for this item: Never let it out of your sight. Always keep it with you. It's for times when you think that you don't matter to anyone. It's there to remind you that at least one person thought you mattered enough to give you something that was important to them because they knew you'd take care of it and put it to better use. So really, don't loose it. It's under the box filling because if someone opened it before you, I didn't want them taking what's in there. I hope you like it._

_Harry_

_p.s: I have something else for you, but I thought I'd give it to you later._

Erika folded the paper and put it with the cards. She pulled the filling out of the small box and saw a smaller velvet box there. She opened it and pulled out a silver chain with a beautiful black sapphire pendant on it. The chain had no clasps on it; just two ends that looked like the chain had just been pulled apart. Erika stared wide-eyed at it for a minute, admiring the simple beauty of the necklace, then put it around her neck. As the chain ends touched, she felt the chain fuse together and there was no way of getting it off. She was glad that she liked it, because if she didn't, it was stuck there anyway. She looked down at it and saw that the pendant was changing colors. Then, it finally settled on pink. She figured it must color coordinate with your clothing. This was definitely on her favorite gifts list, as was all the other stuff she had gotten today. It wasn't even her birthday and the gifts were 10 times better. She put the cards in one of the empty boxes and put Hermione's picture back in its box along with Neville's picture. She blew out the candle on the cupcake, and ate it as she walked up to her dormitory to put away all the stuff she received.

She walked back down when she heard the sound of footstep coming from the common room. She looked around to see if any of the people she was looking for had come in. She heard a lot of "Welcome back, Erika" and "What's up, Erika?' and she tried to reply to all of them, but she hurried out of the common room in search of her friends. She didn't have to look very far for one of them, seeing as she ran right into him.

"Erika!" said Neville as he pulled her into a hug.

"Hi, Neville. I was looking for you. I just wanted to say thank you for your drawing. I never knew that you could draw so well." Erika said.

"Oh, it was nothing." Neville said.

"No, it's great! I love it. I'm keeping it forever." Erika said.

"Hey, if you're looking for Harry, Hermione, or Ron, they should be up here in a few minutes if you want to wait for them." Neville said as the portrait hole opened for him.

"No, I think I'll go find them. I'll be back in a little while. Save us a seat in there, I want to talk to all of you!" Erika said, as she walked in the direction from where Neville came. She walked for about five minutes and growing weak from all the things she had done that day. Her body ached in protest, but she walked on finally asked Parvati Patil if she had Harry, Ron or Hermione. Parvati leaned in to whisper what she knew.

"I think I saw them heading for the Room of Requirement. I didn't want to say that out loud incase they were doing something really important." Parvati whispered.

"Ok. Thanks so much, I owe you one!" Erika said and turned quickly in the direction of the Room of Requirement. Forgetting her lack of energy, she began to go faster, until she was in a dash. She was so anxious to see them. She felt as if she had been on a long journey and had finally returned home. Lots of people were whispering about her, loud enough for her to hear, but she ignored them. Then, someone shouted her name. She kept running, but glanced behind her to see who her caller was. She saw Luna waving in her direction, and Erika waved back. She turned back around and before she knew it she felt a hard collision with an extremely flimsy wall and fell to the ground. She gasped for air and felt a sharp pain in her abdomen that quickly subsided. She felt the wall move and realized that it wasn't a wall at all.


	4. Back to the Infirmary

A mass of dark curly red hair had fallen into the startled face of Harry Potter. His first instinct was to push his assailant away from him, but the most enamoring scent stopped him. Harry felt as if he could lie there all day, letting the most wonderful aroma take over his senses, but he was jerked back into reality by sudden movement and a piercing gasp. Harry shot up and saw the familiar face of his favorite rebellious hospital escapee, taking deep draws of air as she regained her breath and holding her side. He slid closer to Erika and smiled down at her. Their eyes met. She smiled back at him sleepily and laughed softly.

"I was looking for you." Erika whispered as her eyes wondered up to the ceiling. She placed her palm on her forehead and sighed.

"Well, you found me. But, next time, try to warn me before you jump me in the middle of the hall." Harry said.

"Yeah, ummm…sorry about that…. I got distracted by Lu-u-u-una." Erika said as she another sharp pain shot through her side. She sat up quickly and immediately regretted it as more pains pulsed through the rest of her body. She just sat as still as she could, trying to let this horrible pain subside.

"Erika, are you alright?" Harry asked as he moved closer to her and he grabbed her hand.

"No, not quite," Erika replied in an agonizing tone. She was fighting the tears that were welling in her eyes, but the dam was about to break.

"Well, what's wrong?" Harry asked, not knowing what to do. Erika clutched her side with her free hand even tighter when the worst pain she had ever felt in her life tore through her abdomen.

"OH MY GOD, HARRY, IT HURTS!" Erika screamed. She squeezed Harry's hand until it was a bright shade of purple.

"What does? What does?" Harry asked frantically. This was unbelievable. She couldn't be hurt again.

"My side." Erika replied through her tear choked tone, as she raised her arm up and replaced even tighter around herself, but not before Harry saw something that he didn't want to see.

Blood was seeping through her pink shirt, and Erika began to tremble uncontrollably. She looked down at the blood, then wide-eyed back up at Harry. Her grip tightened even more and her eyes started to flutter as if she was about to pass out.

"No, Erika, you have to stay awake. Count to 100, sing your favorite song, do something. Just don't go to sleep, you can't." Harry said, looking wildly around him for someone.

Just his luck, deserted.

"If you just stay here with me, talk to me, I might stay awake. Trust me, that's a lot better than my singing." Erika said, smiling weakly.

"What are you talking about? Your singing is beautiful." Harry said, trying to calm her down. It was the truth; she had a singing voice that was personally sent to her from heaven, in his opinion.

"Yeah right…. Well s-s-since I'm not letting y-y-you leave, don't you want to know w-w-why I was looking f-f-for you?" Erika said, her voice sounding a little less panicked.

"You do realize that you could be bleeding to death, right? I need to be getting help. I would get you down to the hospital myself, but with my luck, I would make it worse." Harry said.

"Yeah, but what I know is t-t-that Ron will be coming this way any minute now, he always goes back to the common r-r-room this way after herbology. He's l-l-like clockwork. He can go get help. I'll tell him that I wouldn't let you leave, he'll get m-m-mad at both of us, and then he'll get over it. You w-w-wanted me to stay awake, so did you want to know why I was looking for you or not?" Erika said. Harry ignored her request to stay, and started to get up, but Erika wouldn't let go of his hand. He tried to pull his hand away, but she had his hand in a death grip. He sighed and sat down beside her.

"Yes, why did were you looking for me, my favorite accident prone friend?" Harry asked.

"I just wanted to say thank you so much for the necklace. I love how the pendant changes color to match your clothes." Erika said, the stutter completely gone with the calmness returning.

"It doesn't change colors to match your clothes, it's a mood pendant. Why did you think it color coordinated with your clothes?" Harry asked.

"Because it turned pink, and I happen to be wearing pink." Erika said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Well, how would you know if it changed colors with your clothes? You always wear pink." Harry added.

"Good point. Well, since you are the expert about this beautiful little trinket, what does pink mean?" Erika asked.

"It means lightheartedness and love. Who are you in love with? Surely not that arrogant prat, the woman beater, Erika, you can't possibly…" Harry said, but was interrupted.

"No, I'm not in love with Michael, I thought I was, but I'm not and never was…. And honestly….. I really don't know who I'm in love with…. Maybe it's the lightheartedness part that is showing up. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me with Michael gone." Erika said.

"That's good. I think we all feel that way with him gone. None of us liked him, you know." Harry said.

"Why? I mean, before you found out about all the details about him?" Erika questioned.

"Because, not all of us have a heart of gold like you and we don't always see the good in people. We all thought that there was something wrong about him. Only you could have only seen whatever good he had in him, because you are so pure hearted. Really, what did you see in him?" Harry asked.

"Well, he has a great smile, perfect teeth, and he could be charming at times. I really don't know, and I really don't want to think about him." Erika said. Then, she thought of something to change the subject. "Ron will be turning the corner in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…."

And sure enough, there came Ron walking leisurely around the corner.

"Ron! Go get Madame Pomfry! Something's happened to her. She umm… fell." Harry said.

"Why didn't you go get her? There's blood all over the floor! Is that not bad enough to go get someone?" Ron asked incredulously.

"I-I- ummm, well- I…." Harry stammered, looking back and forth from Ron to Erika, hoping for a way out of this mess, but it didn't look like it was coming. Ron was getting closer and closer with a look of total fury swirling in his eyes. Harry started to back away, when Erika interjected.

"Whoa, wait a second, Ron! I wouldn't let him leave, so just chill out and stop being a prat. Besides, I'm feeling a little better now. You two can just help me walk to the hospital." Erika said, trying to pull herself onto her feet, despite the mind altering pain.

"No, don't you dare! You're staying right there and Harry, you stay with her. I'll be right back." Ron said and ran off towards the infirmary.

"I told you, he won't even be mad at you. He will be mad at me more like it for not being careful. Yeah, I'm going to hear an earful from Madame Pomfry." Erika said. She slid back down the wall to the floor and replaced her hands on her injured side. "Oh my gosh, this is the worst pain have ever felt in my life, well, that I can remember feeling. That cracked skull would have probably hurt really bad if I hadn't passed out." Erika said.

"I would think that it would have." Harry said, returning to his spot beside her.

"Oh, I meant to ask you, what else do you have to give me? You said in your note that there was something else." Erika said.

"Oh, that, ummm…. Well, I don't have it on me right now. I'll have to get it to you later. It's not much of anything. Look, there's Ron." Harry said quickly and jumped to his feet.

Erika looked up at him with a baffled look on her face, but immediately forgot about her confusion when she heard the stern voices of her favorite school nurse and her overreacting cousin coming her way.

_**Later that night…**_

"She's going to be alright isn't she?" Neville asked Harry, trying to talk over the loud shouts. "She sounds like she in lots of pain."

"Oh, she'll be fine. They just gave her some pain potion. For some reason, every time they give that to her, she goes crazy with rage. Some kind of weird side effect. I've had the same potion before, and I never have any side effects from it. They would use a different one, but it's the only one that works on her." Harry said.

"It's because she mental. That's why the others won't work." Ron ranted as he paced the floor. "She needs to listen when people tell her that she is not well. Her body can't take much more of this. One day, she is literally going to fall apart. It's not because of that potion that she's shouting, it's because that bloody Corner prat drove her insane."

"Oh, hush Ronald. You aren't making any sense. Erika is going to be fine. I agree that overdoing it was not the smartest thing to do, but she has not gone insane. She was just anxious to see all of us, just like we all were to see her." Hermione said calmly.

"Yeah, Ron, she said she was looking for us when she ran into me. It's not like she meant to bleed out all over the floor." Harry said as he leaned up against the infirmary wall.

"Well, she should have known that we would have been back in the common room in just a few minutes. I mean, she has all of us timed to the second." Ron said, pleading for some support.

"Yeah, she did count down the seconds of when you found us. It was brilliant." Harry commented casually, trying to break the tension in the room. The shouting stopped suddenly.

"Yeah, brilliant." Ron sighed sarcastically. "Her being brilliant is going to drive me insane right along with her." Ron huffed as Madame Pomfry stepped out of the curtain surrounding Erika and pulled it tightly shut.

"I swear, the next time something happens to her, she is going to have to suffer through the pain. We could barely hold her down long enough to get a sleeping draught down her throat. I've never seen a reaction to a potion like that in my life." Madame Pomfry said as she abruptly sat in one of the nearby chairs.

"Is she alright?" Hermione asked.

"She's fine, but one of the reasons she was shouting so much, besides the potion, was I told her she was not leaving here until she was fully recovered. That made her rage even worse. She is quite a character." Madame Pomfry said.

"Why was she bleeding so much?" Harry asked, the question pounding on his mind.

"The force of her fall, which I assume was a pretty hard fall, made one of her ribs completely break off and puncture her side. Every move she made afterward made the wound get bigger. So, in other words, she had a pretty big hole in her side, and the bigger it got, the more she bled. I mended the rib to normal and closed the wound, but not without a fight. That child can be insufferable!" said the infirmary nurse.

"Yeah, that sounds her." Ron said loudly.

"But Mr. Potter, she is lucky that you were there to keep her awake. The adrenaline rush was the only thing keeping her from entirely bleeding out. If she would have relaxed into a sleep a, we might have not gotten there in time. Something is surely watching over her." said Madame Pomfry admiringly.

"When can we see her?" Harry asked, trying to change the subject. He wasn't a hero in his mind. He was the one that Erika ran into and nearly gotten herself killed. He had, for some reason, chosen to take another route back to the common room. If he had chosen differently, she would not be in the infirmary once again, recovering from an injury caused by someone else.

"You can see her now if you like, but that sleeping draught will not wear off for quite a while. It will probably be better if you come back in the morning. It will have worn off by then for sure." Madame Pomfry said.

"Yeah, let's all just come back tomorrow. I don't think I can take her being dead to the world anymore." Hermione said as she got up and walked through the door, trying to stifle her tears. Ron thanked Madame Pomfry quickly and took off after her. Ginny and Neville stood up and started for the door too, but not for the same reason as Ron. Harry remained totally still, lost in his thoughts of guilt and uneasiness.

"Are you coming, Harry?" Ginny asked, poking her head back through the door way.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a little bit. Just go on without me." Harry replied, politely waving her off. Ginny smiled at him, and then turned to catch up with Neville.

Harry wanted to go in the curtains and just talk to Erika's sleeping form, but he just couldn't. He could bear to look at her, lying helpless in a hospital bed once again. The guilt was absolutely torturing him, making him sicker by the second. Just getting outside was his main objective. He waited until he was certain that the others were up in the common room, or at least far away from him, before he left the infirmary. What he wanted was to be left alone, no one there to get distracted by. He walked out on to the grounds, not really caring if it was after hours, and headed for the quidditch pitch. He walked into the Gryffindor dressing room and opened his locker to retrieve his Firebolt. As soon as his feet touched the green grass of the quidditch pitch, he was in the air, heading for his favorite thinking spot. He flew up to the highest hoop on the right side of the pitch and positioned himself and his Firebolt where neither of them would fall off. Harry absentmindedly ran his hand through his hair as he often did when he was stressed about something. He let his head rest on the inside of the hoop. His mind wandered off onto thoughts of his friends and his classes, but they came back ever so often to one certain person. This person had held a spot in his mind for the last few days, jumping up at him when he least expected it. It wasn't that he didn't like the thoughts, but it was as if he dwelled on them constantly. He had no idea why he thought of her so often. Most of the time, he just dismissed them as thoughts of worry because of the recent events that had so unfortunately stumbled into her path. But even during the times when he was so busy with school or quidditch and seemed like he had no more room in his mind for anything else, Erika was there. A clear picture of her and her long, crimson red hair waving in the breeze always entered his mind during times like that. She was there, just dancing in the back of his head, making him smile as memories of her replayed in his daydreams. He had never pondered on one person so much in his life, with the exception of maybe his parents or Voldemort. Thinking about someone so much kind of scared him, and it greatly concerned him. He certainly didn't need a distraction right now with all of the things he had going for him. Keeping focus was very important in succeeding in most everything that he did. But, he wasn't trying his hardest to keep the invader of his mind out. Maybe, even if he didn't realize it right then, he wanted his sweet distraction……


	5. Pondering and the White Curtained Prison

Erika was woken up by the sounds of the morning ringing softly in her ears. She shut her eyes again, not wanting to wake up to the inevitable boredom of the familiar room she woke up in so often. The previous day's events played through her mind in fast forward speed, reminding her why she was in the hospital and unfortunately letting her know how long she would be there. At least 2 days was what Madame Pomfry said.

She let her mind drift off into space and all the sudden, a picture of a certain bespectacled, green eyed, messy haired boy popped into her mind's eye. It wasn't the normal thought of the joking Harry that she usually had. He had a far away look in his eyes as if in serious contemplation. He was sitting something that looked like a large ring that she immediately recognized as a quidditch hoop, which she knew was his favorite thinking spot of all time. He didn't know that she knew about skyward retreat. She followed him to the pitch one day during her third year when she got tired of him disappearing for no apparent reason. She watched him fly up there and heard a frustrated scream. That was the day that she realized that Harry's cheery exterior was sometimes hid what he really felt. She knew that he usually went up there when he was seriously troubled about something. She also knew that he must have been up there last night because her mental picture was wearing the same clothes as he was yesterday. He very rarely wore his clothes the same way twice. 'Why do I remember this stuff?' Erika thought as she situated herself in a more comfortable position as Harry's face faded into the back of her mind.

She looked over at the clock on the nightstand- 8:30a.m. The pain potion had put her out longer than she had expected. She smiled as she remembered the wild side effects of the potion she had the night before. They really shouldn't have told her that she was going to have to stay in the hospital before they gave that potion to her. She would have gladly told them that she had found a pain potion that truly worked for her, but when they told her the awful news, she decided to let the infirmary staff suffer a little. She felt kind of bad about it, but it was probably her pain-altered mind thinking for her instead of her normal mind anyway. She would have to apologize later.

Most of the day went on like that, dreary and boring. The highlight of her day was when Luna came in and told her some rather juicy news. Luna said that she was walking the long way to one of her classes and she saw Ginny and Neville sneaking into a deserted classroom. Erika just knew those two were going to click one day and she was so happy for them. Both Ginny and Neville had talked to her about that they "might have feelings for him/her" and Erika knew it was only a matter of time.

She really wished the others would come in and keep her company, but she knew that they were busy. Ron, Ginny and Harry were all at quidditch practice and Hermione always had enjoyed watching them. Just the thought of them made her glace down at the gifts that they had given her. Harry's heart-shaped pendant had turned a shade of deep grayish-blue. She had an inkling about what blue meant- sadness and sorrow.

Erika hated that she was going to miss out on the next few quidditch practices, and more that she was letting her team down. She had taken a chaser position during her second year, and had only missed one practice in nearly 4 years. Odd circumstances that all of her friends now knew about had put her in the hospital with a mysterious swollen eye. She would have played anyway, but the eye was swollen shut and she had a nerve splitting headache. The headache was so painful that her vision in the other eye was completely gone.

Now, her record was five missed practices and 1 missed game. As soon as she was released, she knew where she was going right after she talked to all of her friends- the quidditch pitch. Even in her confinement, she practiced different passing drills and threw at a moving holographic quidditch hoop with a returning quaffle that Ron had left for her. Quidditch was the only thing that made her feel like a normal person and she wasn't going to give it up. Quidditch wasn't based on how smart you are. Knowing all the ingredients to a hundred different potions wasn't going to help you if you had a bludger flying at your head. Talent was the key to being successful, and lots of practice. She definitely had had a lot of practice.

Before her head bashing, she was on the pitch everyday for at least an hour, usually with Harry and sometimes Ginny and Ron. She had practiced that much ever since she made the team. It took Erika a year to persuade Harry to come down to the pitch to practice with her. He always refused, jokingly claiming that she would be sorry. She never quite understood why he would refuse quidditch, his favorite thing in the world, but he finally came around after about a year of pleading with him. After a few practices with him, Erika realized he actually wasn't joking when he said that she would be sorry. He was absolutely fierce when he practiced one-on-one, not letting up a bit. Madame Pomfry had nicknamed Harry 'the drill sergeant' after Erika had made a few visits to the infirmary, covered in muddy quidditch gear and some pretty vicious black and blue knots. Michael wasn't the only reason he had lots of bruises. She thanked Harry for at least 25 of them, but she knew the practice would pay off. And it did- tremendously. Her stats improved dramatically just after a few weeks, and they got better with every passing game. She didn't know how she was going to thank him. So even in that hospital, no matter how much it hurt, she was going to practice. She refused to let her game slip. They had worked too hard for that…..

Harry spent the next day in almost a complete haze. He couldn't concentrate on anything and it took anyone who wanted his attention at least 3 tries before he came back into focus. He just didn't feel like talking, or listening, or just being inside the school for that matter. All he wanted was to get out on the quidditch pitch to run drills with Erika. He didn't realize how much the time he spent on the pitch with her made his day. Sure, he could go out there with Ron or Ginny, but it just felt odd without Erika there zooming bludgers at him while he looked for the snitch.

He couldn't believe he actually missed bludgers! He missed the cute expression on Erika's face when she got frustrated about missing a pass or overshooting a hoop, the way she smiled when she made a game winning goal, and even the way she laughed at him when he dodged a bludger within inches. But her eyes were what Harry missed the most. Those piercing blue eyes that held so many personalities. They made her so easy to read. He knew when something was wrong with her by the glossy glaze that formed in her eyes, as if tears were about to fall. When she was happy, her eyes seemed to glow, illuminating the cheerful presence around her. The look he knew the best was the far-off thoughtful gaze that formed in her eyes when she was in deep thought. It was his favorite because it was her as she really was. You can fake happiness or sadness, but you can't avoid thinking, and thinking was what Erika did best. And she did a lot of that, seeing as she was so very smart. But the picture he couldn't erase from his mind was the glance she gave him just before the hurried up the dormitory stairs the morning she woke up from her coma. The satisfied smirk that held so many emotions at once- excitement, nervousness, thrill, happiness, thankfulness….. so many more things that he couldn't even name.

He couldn't believe the way he was acting in regards to Erika; he had never felt anything like this. He never realized who was right in front of him until devastation threatened to take her away from him. He questioned himself every other lovely thought of Erika- What was he getting himself into? What if she didn't like him back? What if I'm putting her in more danger? What if something happens to her? What will Ron think? What would others think? He hated the attention he seemed to run into with the press, and "the boy who lived" together with "the smartest girl alive" would certainly draw some attention. Plus, if Voldemort found about it, Erika would be a sure target. He definitely didn't want that for her, but he didn't want to let her pass him by. The more he thought about how much risk she would be in, the more depressed he got. He let himself fall in, and he didn't know what he was going to do about it…….

_**Two days later…. Release day**_

Erika fastened the last button on her new button up patchwork shirt that her aunt Molly had sent her. It was her 'last release from the hospital' gift. She made a deal with herself that she was going to avoid this place the best she could from now until graduation day, and her shirt would be her reminder of that deal. It was one of the coolest gifts he had ever gotten, and it was even better knowing that he aunt made it for her. She heard the voices of her favorite people who were outside the curtain waiting for her, but she was kind of nervous to see them. This was the first time she would really get to see them since before her incident with Michael. None of them had been able to visit her for the last two days because of homework and quidditch practice, but she understood. She felt stupid for not listening to Madame Pomfry's advice about not overdoing anything. She was sure that she would get more speeches about that too.

She looked at her appearance in the full length mirror and sighed. Her head was still bandaged and decorated with silver glitter and little pink and black designs. She was glad that the shirt was long-sleeved to cover up her past infliction. She really didn't want to answer any more "What happened to you?" questions. It made her feel ashamed that she had let something so horrible happen to her. She hated herself for it, but she didn't dare show her anxiety. She didn't want to be depressed in her friends' eyes. They had already worried themselves over her way too much. She refused to be weak anymore. She took a deep breath, pulled the cuffs of her shirt down a little more and walked out of her white curtained prison for what she hoped would be the last time.

Erika was immediately bombarded with a sea of long red hair. Ginny's hug made her wince in pain, but she put it aside and hugged her back. Ginny released Erika and smiled from ear to ear at her.

"Girl, I have missed you so much, it's not even funny. You've missed out on like everything." Ginny said.

"Not everything. I have some sources that have kept me partially informed while you all were so busy. You and me have to talk later." Erika said, pointing Ginny and herself with a menacing smirk on her face. Ginny smirked back and moved closer to Neville, who was grinning shyly at Ginny. Erika looked around at the rest of the people who were there. Hermione and Ron sitting super close on an infirmary sofa, looking up from their quiet conversation, smiling at her presence. Then, Harry was sitting on the floor with his arms resting on his folded knees. His head was rested on his arms, and Erika could hear the low deep breaths of sleep. Erika didn't want to wake him up, but Ron did the honors.

"Ey, Harry! Wake up. She finally came out." Ron said, laughing. Erika didn't particularly like being called slow, but she was glad he was happy instead of angry. Hermione must have talked to him.

At the sound of his name, Harry flinched violently and grasped his wand. The look on his face was priceless. Erika laughed loudly as she always did and Harry sighed with relief as he pulled himself slowly off the ground. Erika went over to him and hugged him tightly.

"A little tired, aren't we?" Erika said as she released him.

"Yeah, didn't get much sleep at all last night." Harry answered as he rubbed his eyes with his palms then stretched out his arms.

"Well, you ought to be. You didn't come back to the common room until 1:00 this morning. You woke me up for a minute when you came in. Then, I woke up again around 4:00 and you were still awake. Where do you disappear to for hours at a time? This is like the third time this week." Ron said.

"I just haven't felt like sleeping lately. I lie in bed for hours, but I just can't go to sleep. So why waste time trying to sleep when I know I won't?" Harry said.

"You've been sleeping during class. That's why you can't sleep at night. But you still didn't say what you've been doing during the night." Hermione said, curiosity getting the best of her.

"I'll never tell." Harry said, smiling sleepily, and shuffling his feet towards the door. "Well, are you lot coming?"

"Absolutely." Erika said, and followed him quickly out the door. She got to where the others where a good ways off from her and Harry.

"You can't hide anything from me, Harry Potter. I know where you go when you can't sleep. It's not all a mystery with you." Erika said sarcastically.

"You're not all that mysterious either, my dear Erika. I know you follow me out there sometimes. You really think that I can't hear you sneaking up behind me? You never were a good sneaker." Harry said, his tone unreadable.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Erika asked quietly, not wanting to make him angry.

"Because it seemed like you liked following me. I didn't want to spoil your fun." Harry said as he smiled down at her with sleepy eyes.

"Well, now it's no fun at all. I feel like an idiot, which I've gotten pretty used to here lately." Erika said, putting her hands in her pockets and looking down at the floor as she walked.

"You're not an idiot. I actually enjoyed you following me. Let's me know that someone cares." Harry said.

"You know I care." Erika said.

"I do. And you can come with me the next time I go up to the hoops if you want to." Harry said.

"No, that you're thinking spot. I don't want to bother you." Erika said.

"That never stopped you from following me before. Besides, if I thought you were going to bother me, I wouldn't have asked. I need someone else to talk to besides myself. The conversation is getting dull anyway." Harry said, laughing quietly.

"Well, since you put it that way…"Erika said.

"…I'll let you know when I'm going." Harry said.

"Of course you will." Erika said, as they slowed down to let the others catch up.


End file.
